


make my wish come true (all I want for Christmas is you)

by CJune



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Humor, Christmas, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Holiday Fic Exchange, Holidays, Humor, M/M, Mild Angst, Mistletoe, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 04:53:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2838707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CJune/pseuds/CJune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“May I ask what you’re doing underneath my seat?  Also, it’s not very polite to grab strangers legs.”  </p><p>“Well, if said stranger’s legs weren’t so nice—“ The person scrambled clumsily out from underneath the seat, grinning sheepishly and holding a banana.  This would normally be the point where Louis would terminate the mildly disturbing short conversation, but there was something very endearing about the self-deprecating grin on his face.  </p><p>Or the one where Harry and Louis meet on a bus, and there's a brief exchange of a coat, but not a number.  However, Louis wants that number, and also, he's got to get a certain Harry back his coat.  Let the chaos, and bad jokes, ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	make my wish come true (all I want for Christmas is you)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Parmahamwithhomademash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Parmahamwithhomademash/gifts).



> I had to choose between 3 prompts, all which were great, and it was hard. But this was incredibly fun to write, even though I did it during finals week :D

“Approaching Camden Road and Farragut Lane.” The bus driver’s voice crackled through the clearly too old to be functioning properly intercom, startling Louis out of the stupor he had been sinking into. Silently scolding himself for dozing off, Louis decided to try to stay awake by people watching. Honestly, it was no surprise there were so few people on the bus. It was the holiday season, and the typical commuters that normally populated the rickety automobile had already gone on holiday--home to visit family and friends. Louis, the unlucky bastard, just happened to have shifts right up to Christmas Eve, but he was crossing his fingers for a promotion soon. Eventually. Probably never with the stingy arse who was his boss.

Anyway, people watching. There was the bus driver, who Louis suspected to have a mild case of paranoia by the way he kept glancing over his shoulder at every stop. Well, given the job of a bus driver, Louis might feel the same. You could never know what type of people would be on the bus. There was a man, similar in age to Louis sat in front of him, probably dealing with awful work hours like his own. His head bobbed up and down, jostled by the movement of the bus, but he remained soundly asleep. Boring. Then, sitting huddled together in a wider seat, an elderly couple sat. If Louis was less scrooge-like he might’ve smiled. Okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration--if he wasn’t so tired and cranky after his long day. Generally Louis loved the holidays, which not only meant Christmas, but his birthday. This year, however, with extra work hours and less free time, Louis hadn’t been able to Christmas shop, let alone plan a birthday celebration. Which was probably for the best, since this birthday was just another tedious reminder that he was getting older. Not much for celebrating.

With his resources for watching exhausted, Louis turned towards the frosted windows. Looking past the smudges of god knows what, snow glittered underneath the street lamps, thickly blanketing the sidewalk. It didn’t show any signs of melting soon. In fact, more and more kept falling, with dark clouds covering the mild light of dusk that normally would slightly raise the temperature. Louis wouldn’t mind the cold, not normally, ‘cept he’d left his jacket at home this morning, and was running too late for the bus to work to stop for it. Shivering slightly Louis reached to find his phone and headphones, decidedly bored with the repetitive surroundings and predictable people.

“Shit, sorry, I mean sorry I seemed to have dropped my erm…” Louis jumped as a hand grazed his ankle from underneath his seat on the bus. 

“May I ask what you’re doing underneath my seat? Also, it’s not very polite to grab strangers legs.” Louis voice had meant to come out sharp and scolding, but it sounded more joking. Damn, he was getting soft. 

“Well, if said stranger’s legs weren’t so nice—“ The person scrambled clumsily out from underneath the seat, grinning sheepishly and holding a banana. This would normally be the point where Louis would terminate the mildly disturbing short conversation, but there was something very endearing about the self-deprecating grin on his face. Also, Louis could admit he was shallow. This man was very, very attractive.

“Harry.” The man, said, holding out the hand that wasn’t preoccupied with the banana. Louis took it and was surprised to feel substantial warmth emanating from the rather large surface. It was a shame he had to let go—the temperature had to be far below freezing even inside the bus. 

“Potter, or Prince?” Louis smirked at the look of surprise on the stranger’s face, but continued “Anyway, I’m Louis. What desperate act forced you upon this loathsome vehicle so close to Christmas?”

“Heading home, well not home home, but, like my flat. Today was the last day of uni before Christmas.”

“Quite late innit? To be ending school?” 

“Bit yeah, but my last exams weren’t finished until today.” Louis struggled to understand Harry—with a combination of a deep voice and a mouth full of banana it was quite a feat he even made a sound at all.

“What’re you studying?” Louis had always considered going to uni, he just never decided what exactly he wanted to do.

“Erm music actually. I started out psychology…it’s impractical I know, I just didn’t feel like studying anything else.” 

“Hey, no judgement, better than me, I didn’t even go to uni.” Harry rapidly shook his head at this, and gestured to Louis’s briefcase before swallowing and responding.

“Nah but you’ve got a job, you’re fine. I don’t even know what I’m gunna do with music. The most I do is open mike at bars. I could teach maybe…”

“My job’s shit though, it’s not what I like. I don’t know what I do like, but it’s not this.” 

“You aren’t that old, though. Like, you aren’t stuck where you are. There’s other stuff, you know? Like you can change your mind.” Louis nearly cracked a smile at that. With his cynical mentality, Harry’s positivity was a nice break. A bit naïve, but, he was alright anyway. 

“Come sit next to me young Harold, I’m tired of facing backwards.” Harry scrambled eagerly to get up and move, and Louis had to smile at that. This bus ride wasn’t turning out to be that awful after all.

“It’s just Harry by the way.”

“Alright Harold.” Louis couldn’t help but feel a bit happy at the red tint that rose to Harry’s cheeks.

*****  
About 20 minutes later Harry started looking at the nearly covered street signs confusedly.

“My stop should be around here somewhere…sorry, I’m not so great at directions, and with the snow…” Louis just nodded, thoroughly chilled to the bone despite the closed windows of the bus. He’d been able to ignore it for a good portion of his conversation with Harry, it being interesting and varying greatly from uni to football teams, to family. Turned out Harry was meant to drive home Christmas Eve to see his sister, mum, and stepdad, since he got out of school so late. 

“Louis, are you alright?” Louis teeth had begun to chatter, and honestly it was more embarrassing than uncomfortable.

“’m fine, just bit chilly.” Louis managed a rather unconvincing grimace-like grin through his shivers.

“Here take this.” Harry quickly shrugged off his coat and refused to listen to Louis’ protests, “I have a huge jumper underneath I’m fine.” Still, while Harry wasn’t lying, his jumper was rather large, Louis felt kind of terrible taking his coat. 

“Thanks.” Muttered a disgruntled, but significantly warmer Louis. This time it was Harry smirking. Louis wasn’t sure how he felt about that. “What’s your stop again?” 

“Oak Street. Which is about…” Harry glanced out the window again, as if suddenly the snow would melt away and tell him exactly where the bus was located in the wash of white that surrounded it.

“Should be 2 or 3 stops from here.” Louis filled in for him. He’d always had a rather keen sense of direction—his sister, Lottie, found it quite obnoxious. But then again, she could barely find her way home from school on a good day. 

The two fell into a comfortable silence and Louis briefly considered asking for Harry’s number. He wasn’t sure how the curly haired, ankle grabbing, banana eating stranger had gone from someone he didn’t know to someone he needed to know more about, but he had 2-3 stops to make up his mind, or you know, grow a pair.

Louis was so busy going over the series of scenarios that could result from the simple questions --ranging from an enthusiastic yes to a horrified scream and desperate attempt to escape through the shoddy windows of the bus--he didn’t even fully register Harry frantically packing up his things and pressing the button to request a stop. 

“Where are you—“

“Shit, I’m sorry Lou, I-I confused myself, I’m supposed to get off at Elm, it’s my friend’s house I um, and I forgot—“ Harry was cut off by the lurching of the bus as it stopped, and the only thing Louis could do was grab his arm to keep him from completely falling over on the excessively long legs of his. Harry offered him a warm smile in return, and in a mildly graceless but absolutely endearing manner turned and quite literally fell off the bus into the snow beside the road. Before Louis could even process what had just happened, the bus was starting up again, zooming away from the boy with the banana.

“Well fuck me.”

********  
See it wasn’t that Louis rarely found people attractive, or rather rarely found people interesting, he just, well, okay he rarely found people attractive or interesting. Call him picky, or maybe he had overly high standards, but a few mishaps with befriending people that weren’t as they seemed, and dating people that were even worse than those he befriended, made him rather wary. It was a good thing, most of the time. 

So maybe his best and pretty much only friend was his roommate, but that was kind of good as well. Might as well live with the only person he could really get along with. 

The problem here was that Harry was both interesting and attractive, and there was something else about him, a kind of innocent kindness and curiosity, that Louis wanted to experience. Too bad he couldn’t because the only interaction he would ever possibly have with the boy was a 30-minute bus ride. Disappointment was an understatement. To be quite honest, Louis wasn’t exactly sure why he cared SO much. Like, yeah, possible friend (or you know, possible more than friends on the off chance he was into guys as well), but there were plenty of those. Kind of. Okay, not really.

Louis must’ve been showing his feelings on his face quite a lot to warrant the respective expression on Zayn’s face as he trudged through the door of their little flat. Oh well, maybe he’d vent. 

“Zayn, the absolute worst thing happened today…” Louis whined in his most dramatic voice, intending his for any actual disappointment that showed through his whining to be interpreted as a joke. He wasn’t THAT lonely.

“What, you wore a coat clearly too big for you to work and were ridiculed by your oh-so-fashionable co-workers?” Louis’ eye roll was not missed by Zayn who snickered and returned to the sketchpad on the table in front of him.

“No, Zayn. My ‘incredibly fashionable’ co-workers did NOT make fun of me for wearing an oversized coat to work. In fact, I didn’t even WEAR a coat to work, which is where my tragic story begins.” Let it not be unknown Louis knew how to present the exposition to a story with utmost finesse.

“Then why, dear Louis, are you wearing a tragically oversized coat, that, if you don’t mind me saying, is definitely not your style?”

“What? I’m not—oh fuck.” Louis still had on the coat. Fuck. How could he forget to give it back to him? He didn’t even know Harry’s last name for fuck’s sake. 

“I’m kidding mate, it’s not that bad…” Zayn was evidently backtracking on his words, thinking they were the reason for Louis’ sudden worry, but Louis was too preoccupied to explain.

“No fuck like, SHIT, how do I even fix this! I practically STOLE his coat, how the fuck—why does this shit happen to me?”

“Wait slow down, Lou, what happened? You stole an old man’s coat?”

“No I stole a potential friend’s coat. But it was an accident? I mean I did TAKE it, but he offered it to me…and then just LEFT!”

“Dude, how on earth am I supposed to help you if I can’t even understand what you’re saying let alone what happened?” Zayn’s calm voice stopped Louis frantic arm waving mid wave, and he turned and looked at Zayn.

“I am officially the most idiotic person ever.”

“Yes, I know. That also doesn’t explain anything.” With a sigh, Louis decided a legitimate response was in order.

“Alright, alright. I’m getting to it. So, me, the idiotic person, met a very cute boy on the bus, had a very nice conversation with said boy, and said boy lent idiotic me his coat. However, this boy got off the bus rather abruptly, and left me with his coat. Which, I did not realize until now. So.”

“So call him and give him back his coat.”

“I don’t have his number.”

“You don’t have his number?” Zayn said this with the air of someone being presented an obvious untruth, such as the sky was green. Louis thought it had something to do with the fact Zayn never got turned down when he asked for a number, that beautiful bastard. 

“No Zayn, I don’t have his number. I, unlike you, must actually fear the occasional rejection, and as this boy was especially cute-- and very possibly not into men—I had to consider my options. And by that time,” he snapped his fingers for effect, “He was gone.”

“You don’t have his number.” Zayn repeated, in the same dumbstruck, lack-of-understanding voice.

“No, I don’t, why is that so hard to understand!” Louis snapped. Jesus Christ, Zayn wasn’t usually so thick.

“I dunno Lou, it’s the first time you’ve talked about a guy in ages, I just thought…” Zayn trailed off, and then shook his head, returning to his work.

“Well, thanks for the insight mate, but I’ve still got to get this back to Harry somehow.”

“Did he tell you anything about himself besides his very common first name?”

“Yeah, but I doubt it’d help, I mean his mum’s name is Anne, his sister’s name is Gemma,” Louis continued listing off the things he could remember, trying to remember the most important, “Oh he goes to uni, erm, at Leeds, right! For music, that is. Because we were talking about festivals, and how he likes to go to them because he’s right there—what Zayn?” 

“It’s a long shot, I dunno…” 

“Mate, honestly anything is better than nothing at this point.”

“Well…uni’s usually have student lists, no?” Louis’ eyes widened comically, and a mischievous grin arose to his face.

“Zayn, man, you may be onto something…”

 

***********

2 hours, several failed phone calls, and a wee break later; Zayn and Louis were sat on the floor amidst a notebook, crumpled papers, and their laptops.

“Alright, so I think the problem here is—“

“That we don’t fucking know his last name and every person and their grandfather is named Harry?” Louis wailed, and he felt mildly disgusted at himself. Fuck this.

“We haven’t been narrowing down our search enough.” Zayn continued smoothly, ignoring Louis’ interruption, “I think, we need to like rule out things. And have an action plan before calling University of Leeds again because they’re going to start recognizing this number and I personally don’t want to be investigated for like proposed kidnapping or something.” Louis rolled his eyes, but had to agree. The random stabs in the dark weren’t going to work any longer. 

“What do you think we should do? I mean, I really only know so much about him…” Louis frowned thinking hard.

“Well, his name isn’t Harold, he’s a music major, that’s got to narrow it down. Maybe we could look into proposed music majors? Or the school of music?” 

“Yeah, yeah. Wait…how wrong of us would it be to pose as a erm, like scholarship fund. And maybe, like we don’t know his last name because we can’t read his handwriting on the application…”

“Mildly wrong, but when have we ever been concerned about that?”

“Yeah, you’re right…let’s do it the Tommo way.”  
*********  
So yeah, morally, maybe asking for a list of musical Harry’s and their personal information wasn’t an awesome idea, but it got results. Turns out at Leeds, there were only seven. Seven wasn’t one, but it wasn’t like 1000. Which was the number of Harry’s at the school entirely. The school had warned the phone number listed may not be the student’s cell number. In fact it usually was the number associated with their parents home, since that was what was usually used during registration. So texting every number and hoping for a response was out, and calling could very well end with a horribly awkward conversation with his future in-laws. Alright, Louis was getting ahead of himself. He could be rational, reasonable…kind of. But there was something besides the responsibility of returning the semi-stranger’s coat that fueled his desire to find out who Harry actually was. Like, actual first name, last name, middle name, cat’s name, eye color, star sign basis. Well, he was pretty sure Harry’s cat’s name was Dusty. Or Molly? Anyway. He definitely knew the eye color bit. It came to him while staring at the evergreen logo of University of Leeds whilst pondering ways in which he could never encounter another web page full of students’ names with that logo on it—Harry’s eyes were a lighter more clear shade of green. He could picture them blinking slowly as he retrieved his banana. God that was weird if he thought about it too much…but pleasant if he didn’t. Anyway, he needed to get back to his mission and if the annoyed look on Zayn’s face said anything he was about 1 more Harry away from declaring it a lost cause. Louis needed Zayn, so back to work.

“So which Harry do you think it is?” 

“How on earth would I know? You’re the one who met him.” Alright, so maybe Zayn was a little closer to calling it quits than Louis had thought. 

“Right right, obviously. Okay he looked a bit like a second year? Maybe?”

“Or he could just have a young face.” 

“Or I could be right.”

“Let’s face it Lou, you aren’t usually right about these things. Remember when you mis-guessed that woman’s age at work and nearly got sacked—“

“FINE, Zayn, Jesus.”

“I’m the one whose helping your love-sick arse, so maybe listen to me?”

“I’m not LOVE sick. I don’t even know the guy. I just want to get his coat back to him.” 

“You’re pining, and it’s getting on my nerves,” Zayn cut off an retort from Louis with a withering gaze, “Are we gonna find this guy, or not? Let me think. Our only option is to narrow down by address, because we don’t know specifics about programs or extracurricular involvement. Do you know anything about where he lives? What stop did he get off on?”

“I don’t remember, it was really quick. Like, he just abruptly got off. That’s how this whole problem happened.” 

“Well, back to square one. I mean, we can rule off those who live on campus, but we still have 4 Harry’s. And I’m NOT going door to door.”

“We could always pretend to be carolers and just sing until I recognize someone…” Louis grinned sheepishly at the look of horror on Zayn’s face.

“You better not be serious.”

“What? I’ve heard you singing in the shower, you’ve got some lovely rifts!” At that Zayn actually got up and left the room, presumably to go to the bathroom. Or maybe Louis had pushed him to his breaking point…nah, couldn’t be. 

After 15 minutes had passed Louis was starting to doubt the bathroom theory.

“Zayn, I was kidding. Well, I wasn’t but like you can pretend I was!”

“Louis, mate, for my sanity, shut the fuck up.” The muffled sound of Zayn came from the bedroom, where surprise surprise, he was curled up in a blanket, his face shoved in his pillow. 

“Please don’t off yourself, I need you,” Louis put on his best puppy dog face despite the fact Zayn could not actually see his face, “You’re gonna suffocate, and I couldn’t live with myself.”

“Please, you just don’t want to be charged with murder.” Still, Zayn rolled over and got up.

“Oh thank god!” 

“Shut up. Have you remembered anything else? Like, why on earth he got off so abruptly? I thought you told me he was going home, wouldn’t he know where he was going?” Wait. Fuck. How had Louis forgotten? The dawn of recognition on Louis’ face must’ve shown through because Zayn sighed in relief. “Please tell me this means you finally remembered the stop he got off on.”

“Zayn, you literally are the best mate ever.”

“I know, now let’s go find this Harry of yours.”

*********

There it was, a small flat, made of mostly red brick with a black door. Red and black, like the gates of hell. ‘Cept there was an excessive amount of multicolored Christmas lights strung up in a semi-haphazard fashion, partially covered in snow, and a massive Christmas wreath that looked to be homemade. Surely the opening to Satan’s home would not participate in holiday decorations that signaled the celebration of Christ’s birth. Surely not. Granted Christmas was commercialized anyway and he’s pretty sure his atheist neighbors also put up lights and wreaths but, you know, optimism.

“Louis, if my arse is gonna freeze before you get out of this car and get us invited inside, I will turn around right now. And drive home. Without you.” Zayn’s threat would’ve sounded much more frightening had he not said it through clenched and chattering teeth. Fortunately, they did not have to take the bus to Harry’s home, as Zayn had a car, but unfortunately the car lacked a heater. Or audio jack. And all the radio seemed to want to play was Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas (Is You).” Louis had turned it off after the third station it had been on and the fourth smirk from Zayn that signaled he hadn’t missed the irony.

Anyway. Zayn’s increasingly murderous glares were telling Louis to get out of the car. Louis wanted to get out of the car. He really did. He just couldn’t.

“Mate, for your own good, and for my sanity and health, get out of my fucking car.”

Louis didn’t get out of the car. He closed his eyes slowly, breathing deeply, wondering how his life had gotten to this state, waiting outside of the house of a boy with big green eyes and a mild banana fetish, in the freezing cold. When he opened his eyes, to his horror, he saw Zayn making his way up to the front door. Nope, nope shit, nope, bad mood Zayn was not good first impression making Zayn and he couldn’t let this—

“Hi, my idiotic friend is sitting in my car like the twat he is because I think he stole your coat.”

Fuck. Louis wanted to fall down in the snow and disappear from where he was now standing a few steps behind Zayn after a desperate, but fruitless attempt to stop the inevitable. Louis decided to look up and see the damage, and realized the brown-eyed lad staring confusedly at Zayn was definitely not Harry. He didn’t know whether to be relieved it wasn’t Harry or horrified they’d potentially scared a stranger into calling the police.

“Louis, mate, I think we may’ve gotten the wrong house…” Zayn trailed off, giving a sheepish but winning grin to the man in the doorway, who still looked mildly stunned. If Louis hadn’t just heard what Zayn had said, he’d have thought the man was stunned by Zayn’s presence himself. Zayn tended to have that effect on people.

“No shit.” Was evidently the best Louis could muster up. God this was an absolute disaster.

“Yeah, man, sorry ‘bout that, erm long story short, we’re gonna head out and uh sorry for the disturbance, Happy Holi—“ Zayn was cut off abruptly by the man clearing his throat.

“Sorry, I just was…surprised. Erm, I think I may know who you’re looking for.” At that he turned and walked back inside the flat, but didn’t close the door. After a few moments of waiting outside, they heard a faint yell that said “Oh right, I forgot to tell you to come in!”

Zayn and Louis exchanged a dubious glance, but Louis figured if said man was a serial killer, there was a two to one ratio here and Zayn didn’t run half as fast as he did. Okay, that was excessive. Maybe.

As soon as Louis stepped into the house, the rich smell of chocolate and slightly spicy scent of gingerbread washed over him. He looked around and noticed the carefree holiday spirit on the outside of the house was not unmatched by the inside. In fact, Louis marveled at the intricate paper snowflakes on every window and what looked to be homemade garlands draped across the walls. Lastly, a small, almost sad-looking Christmas tree was covered in more of the same colored lights from outside, with plenty of ornaments adorning its feeble branches. The poor tree was a bit too little for the extravagance and, as a result, was slightly lopsided. Overall, the flat was small, but with all the decorations it looked cozy and comfortable. It even had a fireplace, which crackled merrily and had plain white tube socks hanging above it, with names written in red sharpie on each one. All in the same handwriting, as if one person had decided to make the makeshift stockings, the names read Liam, Niall, and finally Harry.

So Louis and Zayn weren’t wrong, at least there had to be a Harry living here. 

Zayn moved further into the room and Louis was able to see the small kitchen on the to the side of the room with the tree, fireplace, and makeshift decorations. Liam had plopped down on the sofa near the fireplace, but another person, this one blonde haired and munching on snacks, caught his eye. Louis guessed it was Niall.

“Well thanks Liam, for introducing us to our apparent guests.” A scathing thick Irish accent accompanied the sound of crunching crisps, but the man got up and brushed his hands off on his jeans, “’M Niall by the way.” His smile was carefree, and Louis immediately loosened up from the tense position he hadn’t realized he was standing in.

“I’m Louis, and this is Zayn. This is uh, a bit odd, especially on Christmas Eve, but we’re, well mostly me, I’m here to drop off Harry’s coat. I wanted him to have it when he went home. I’m guessing he’s your flatmate?” For some reason Liam and Niall exchanged a glance and then both started snickering.

“Yeah, we’re Harry’s mates and flatmates as well. Honestly, I seriously doubted you’d bring his coat back, I mean, after not calling, but here ya are.” Before Louis could get a word in edgewise that he did not, in fact, have Harry’s number, Niall was belting “Harry! Someone’s here to see ya sorry arse!” A crash came from one of the back rooms and soon enough, Harry made his way into the room, hand clutching his curly head. 

“Fuck, shit, I hit my head on that stupid ledge in the loo again.” It was only then that Harry looked up, at the same time Louis noticed that Harry was wearing a ‘kiss the cook’ apron. Classic. “Oh.” Not exactly the response Louis was looking for, but hey. He was here to return a coat. 

“Harry, erm, I have your coat?” It came out like a question, and Louis wanted to kick himself. Of course he had his bloody coat. He felt his face going red and cursed internally.

“Oh, thanks.” Louis couldn’t exactly read the look on Harry’s face, but it was somewhere between extreme confusion and like he was trying to hold back from saying something. He could still hear Niall and Liam’s snickering in the background.

“Sorry we stopped by, like now, on Christmas Eve, I know you’re supposed to drive home today and yeah, I just wanted to make sure that you had it. Your coat that is…” Louis trailed off, not exactly sure how to keep the conversation going, or if he even wanted to. This was turning out to be more of a disaster than showing up at the wrong Harry’s house would’ve been. Harry shook his head vigorously, his curls comically falling in his face.

“No, like, it’s totally fine. The three of us can’t drive home today anyway, like we were supposed to, since the weather’s supposed to be awful in a bit. Hence,” He waved his arm in the general direction of the fireplace, and Louis assumed he meant the tube sock ‘stockings,’ “Anyway. We’re not doing anything important. I’d thought I’d bake some gingerbread and maybe bring it home, I mean, you didn’t ask but. Yeah.” The snickering had gotten louder, and Harry shot the boys a look. 

“Alright, yeah, well. Hopefully you’ll be able to make it home tomorrow, yeah? I didn’t know the weather forecast was so bad. I thought the storm was supposed to hit later. We got here okay.” Zayn cleared his throat and looked around the room somewhat awkwardly.

“Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but speaking of the weather, a load of snow just decided to dump itself outside, so we should probably get going before my car disappears.” Harry’s face dropped, but Louis was too busy groaning internally to notice. Round two of meeting Harry, and still, no number. The universe did hate him.

“Right, yeah, well thanks for stopping by.” Louis did a stupid little wave, then mentally smacked himself. Niall and Liam chimed in with their “Nice meeting yous” and Louis and Zayn made their way out the door. 

“Sorry mate, that didn’t seem to go as well as we thought. I would’ve stayed longer but,” Zayn gestured to the fresh blanket of snow and continually falling flakes in the air. The wind was gusting hard, and Louis couldn’t blame him for wanting to head home. He also wanted to get back to his family tonight.

“It’s no big deal, thanks for coming with. And you know, helping me find him.” Zayn nodded and they both got in the car. Zayn put the key in the ignition, and Louis leaned back, closing his eyes. At least his family would distract him from wallowing in self-pity. Louis didn’t get much time for peace however, because a horrible sound erupted from the engine. Louis jumped, his eyes snapping open.

“What the fuck was that?” The grimace on Zayn’s face said enough. “Fuck.”

“Honestly mate. You probably say that far too often.”

“Honestly Zayn, shut the fuck up.”  
*********

“Oh hi, back so soon?” A cheerful Niall greeted the clearly disgruntled Zayn and mortified Louis at the door. This was worse than a walk of shame. He’d take a hundred walks of shame over this. 

“Who was that?” Harry’s voice came from inside the flat.

“Just your two favorite people!” Niall led them back in and just caught the end of Harry’s adorably confused frown.

“Niall, Gemma and mum can’t be here, I’m going to see them tommor—Oh.” Harry locked eyes with Louis, and Louis wanted to look away, but he couldn’t. Louis wanted to melt at the fact Harry’s two favorite people were his mum and sister, but all he could do right now was stay frozen and feel the tension in the air.

“Yeah, I’m really sorry to do this to you guys, sometimes my car gets finicky in the cold, and, it just wouldn’t start. I know you guys were celebrating, and we’re basically strangers…” Zayn shrugged his shoulders, but Niall just put an arm around him. Liam walked over to Zayn as well, and kinda awkwardly patted him on the shoulder.

“Nah, man, it’s totally fine. The more the merrier. Besides, from what we’ve heard about Louis from Harry, you two can’t be that bad.” Louis missed the glare Harry shot Liam, and the sheepish grin Liam gave in return, but Zayn didn’t. 

“Yeah, seriously, it’s almost like a real Christmas Eve party.” Niall laughed and shook his head. “Snacks anyone? Harry here has been cooking some dinner, but it’s not ready yet, and I’m starving.” At this, Louis couldn’t hold back a laugh, because, as evidenced by the crisp wrappers scattered around on the floor, he’d been eating all day. “Hey, I’m always hungry, alright!” Niall’s comment was accompanied by a playful shove and him skipping over to the kitchen, where Harry was busy at work.

“Niall, those aren’t iced yet!” The indignant yell came from Harry as Niall shoved half a gingerbread man in his mouth.

“Fuck, this is hot!” Niall promptly spat the man out on the ground, and a collective groan came from Liam and Harry. 

“Please tell me you’re gonna clean that up.” Harry said this in a manner that said he didn’t think he would but had some desperate small hope. This hope was evidently unfounded, as Niall shrugged and walked away, probably to the toilet.

“I’ll get it, I don’t mind. I mean, we’re taking over your home, and yeah. It’s the least I can do.” Louis even surprised himself, since he rarely did cleaning unless it was absolutely necessary. 

“Oh, alright, if you really want to. And, really it’s no trouble, like, I probably made way too much food anyway.”

“Well, thanks, for like having us.” Louis grabbed a couple paper towels and Harry smiled, his dimples popping. Liam and Zayn exchanged dubious looks, but returned to the sofa and started to watch some Christmas special. Niall soon joined them, with more snacks. With the light Christmas music playing in the background, and the warmth of the kitchen, and let’s face it, Harry’s presence, Louis didn’t mind being here at all.  
*********

Louis and Zayn each called their respective families, informing them of the bad weather and where they were (a friend’s house, which was slowly becoming more true as the night went on). Their calls were met with “I’m glad you’re safes” and “see you tomorrows,” so in all, that seemed to work out. Zayn returned to his spot on the sofa, chatting animatedly with Liam and Niall, and Louis asked if Harry needed any help cooking. Granted, Louis wasn’t that great at cooking, but he wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to get to know Harry better.

After spending some time in the kitchen, helping Harry with simple tasks, Harry shooed him out, saying “Too many cooks in the kitchen!” Louis just laughed, feeling pretty good about his cooking skills, though he did have to embarrassingly ask how to whisk. It was alright though, as Harry had just reached around him and took his arm, showing him gently how to move the whisk in an elliptical pattern. Louis definitely did not blush at the small touch. They’d had a good chat, and it seemed clearer than ever that they got on far to well for how long they had known each other. Louis plopped down next to Zayn, and was glad to hear the topic of conversation was comic book characters. Before he could really join the conversation, there was a tap on his shoulder. 

“’Scuse me lads, but it’s actually a very special day today” Harry had a grin on his face, but before he could finish, Niall chimed in.

“Harry, we’re not idiots, we know it’s Christmas Eve.” Harry just rolled his eyes, and Louis had to give him props. That was a Louis-worthy eye roll.

“No, Niall, it’s not JUST Christmas Eve. Besides, not everyone is Christian in the world, and just because Christmas is the most commercialized holiday, doesn’t make it the most important.” Zayn nodded at this, and Liam snickered at the look on Niall’s face. “Anyway, it’s someone else’s birthday, and he’s with us here today.” Liam and Niall looked thoroughly confused, but Zayn just face palmed.

“Aw, Louis mate, I’m sorry I completely forgot!” Zayn looked so ashamed, Louis couldn’t be even a tiny bit annoyed.

“No, Zayn, it’s fine, I didn’t want a big deal anyway.” Harry cleared his throat again and pulled something out from behind his back. It was a large gingerbread man, with blue icing eyes and fluffy light brown chocolate hair. On it’s stomach read ‘Happy B-Day Louis!’ And Louis felt himself grinning embarrassingly wide. 

“I’m sorry it’s not a cake, but I, erm, didn’t know you’d be here today. So.”

“Harry, do you expect me to eat myself for my birthday?” Louis gestured to the eyes and hair on the gingerbread man, but his smile came through in his voice, and Harry just grinned sheepishly in return.

“Yeah, I didn’t really think that through, did I?”

“It’s perfect.” This time both Harry and Louis were too oblivious to notice the exchanged glances of their friends behind them, but maybe that was a good thing.  
**********

A few hours, one gingerbread man birthday cake, and plenty of alcoholic beverages later, the 5 boys were in various states of inebriated, evidenced by Niall’s singing along to Nat King Cole’s Christmas album, Liam and Zayn curled up together on the sofa, clapping along, and Louis and Harry being nowhere to be found. 

The flirtiness between the two had increased dramatically throughout the night, but Louis wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol (he’d drank plenty more before, and he wasn’t even close to smashed), or just the fact that they’d spent pretty much the whole night together. After swapping stories of Christmases past while sitting nearly nose to nose on the fluffy rug in front of the fire, including one where Gemma had made Harry into a human snowman, and another where Louis had burnt the Christmas roast, their giggles had died down, and Harry offered to show Louis around the flat. Louis might’ve heard a whoop from Niall when they left the room, but so far, nothing of that sort had happened. Not that Louis really minded. He was content with Harry’s rambling and horrible knock-knock jokes. Right now, they were sat outside the flat on the small front stoop. The neighbor’s Christmas lights reflected softly off the snow, and in the moment, it was quiet and calm before the approaching storm. Still, it was rather cold, as the storm was seemingly on the cusp of hitting in full force and Louis shivered. Harry smiled, and the situation became reminiscent of the first time this had happened.

“Want my coat?”

“No I’m fine, like, this time I’m actually wearing warm clothes.” Harry shook his head and just took off the coat again, wrapping it around Louis’s shoulders. Underneath his coat was another almost hideously cheerful holiday sweater, with giant snowflakes woven into the dark green and red knitting.

“We’ll go inside soon, I just…I wanted to ask you something.”

“What?” Louis started to feel a bit nervous, and wondered if Harry was going to start questioning his rather questionable methods of how he found his flat in the first place. At this point, though, he wasn’t completely sure Harry wouldn’t just find it mildly hilarious. He hoped.

“Why didn’t you take my phone number?” 

“What are you going on about?” Now Louis was actually confused, “You didn’t give it to me…”

“Yeah, I did, I mean,” Harry produced a small pink piece of paper and handed it to Louis, “I left it in the jacket pocket…I thought it was, I dunno, clever, or something.” Harry shook his head a bit, “I guess not, but why’d you still show up if you didn’t want it?”

“Harry, of course I wanted your number you dolt! I didn’t even, I didn’t KNOW! I never found it!” Harry’s eyes widened comically.

“So that’s why you didn’t call ahead! Wait, how’d you even find this place in the first place?” Louis grimaced, but decided he had to come clean. After he recounted the entire ordeal, including Zayn’s hissy fit, Harry had tears of laughter in his eyes, “Well, I’m not sure if I’m thankful my address is that difficult to get, or worried you didn’t just think of looking me up on Facebook.”

“I didn’t even know your last name!” Louis exclaimed indignantly, and Harry burst into a new fit of giggles, burying his head into Louis’s shoulder. 

“That must’ve been a problem, huh.”

“No shit!” Their laughter faded, but Harry didn’t move his head, and Louis wrapped an arm around his shoulder. Louis sighed contentedly, thinking to himself that this night wasn’t half bad. Convoluted as shit, but honestly one of the best Christmas Eves and birthdays he’d had. He was about to share this with Harry when Harry spoke up.

“Look, Louis,” Harry pointed to a small clump of greens, with red berries in between, “mistletoe!”

“That’s holly, Harry. Mistletoe’s white.”

“Darn, I thought you wouldn’t know the difference.” Louis smiled at that, and at the blush creeping up Harry’s cheeks.

“I can pretend I don’t. I’ve kinda been wanting to kiss the cook all day…”

“What?” Harry looked confused, and Louis kicked himself internally for being such a dork.

“Your apron? ‘Kiss the cook’? Never mind, it was stupid.”

“Lou, I just tried to trick you into kissing me, and I was the one wearing the apron…”

“Alright, alright, just, can we kiss already?”

“Gladly.”

And they kissed. Finally.


End file.
